Best inventory system in crpg?

[Rabbity_Thing]

I don't care. The inventory system has to not irritate. That is all.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

list-based is superior for an actual RPG, there's not even an argument against it beyond "muh fee fees" and "look at the pretty colors! just like... look at them!!!"

other inventory types are designed for games that aren't rpgs

Based take, king! But why stop at inventory? RPGs shouldn't have any visuals whatsoever! Everything should be text based and resemble a CYO adventure novel. No use of differing fonts, of course! Only Times New Roman allowed, because only simpletons obsessed with pretty colors care if their game looks like a excel spreadsheet!

If your rpg doesn't look like this:

Well....

Half the games I play are text based so

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Tetris inventory is a minigame.

You call this monocled lol

who the fuck likes this

only consoletards and deranged weaboos

What deranged gymnastics is this? It's a list of words with a little icon to the side to denote what type of item it is.

Behold...WeebOS! (console exclusive)

 

[CHIN00K]

Behold...WeebOS! (console exclusive)

Bros.... The answer has been right in front us this whole time...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Behold...WeebOS! (console exclusive)

meanwhile, the preferred UI of icontards:

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Inventory tetris masterrace reporting in.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

monocled text list:

You call this monocled lol

One can only assume the thread-starter was being sarcastic in selecting console decline JRPG Final Fantasy VII as his example of a "monocled" list inventory, while selecting prestigious subgenre-definer Dungeon Master as his example of a supposedly inferior icon-based inventory.

 

[gurugeorge]

I like rpg tetris in single character rpgs. But I prefer the list or icon variant in games with larger groups. Juggling items between the backpacks of characters of the same group is boring busywork.

I dunno, I often find it conceptually easier to keep clear each member's role in the team if they have separate inventories (although of course it's mandatory that you should be able to easily move stuff between inventories). It depends on the game though, whether that feels right or not.

Having said that though, the best inventory system at the moment, for me, is PF:WOTR's general inventory with the inventory mod. You have useful tabs (weps, armor, accessories, etc.) and automatic stacking from the base game (with easy separability), and you have easy text searchability and a number of useful filters (e.g. "usable without UMD" "all unlearned scrolls", etc.) from the mod.

Inventory is always a balance between functionality for the guy sitting in the chair, with the retention of some kind of immersive level so that it still feels psychologically like you're moving stuff around in backpacks or whatever.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

I like rpg tetris in single character rpgs. But I prefer the list or icon variant in games with larger groups. Juggling items between the backpacks of characters of the same group is boring busywork.

I dunno, I often find it conceptually easier to keep clear each member's role in the team if they have separate inventories (although of course it's mandatory that you should be able to easily move stuff between inventories). It depends on the game though, whether that feels right or not.

Having said that though, the best inventory system at the moment, for me, is PF:WOTR's general inventory with the inventory mod. You have useful tabs (weps, armor, accessories, etc.) and automatic stacking from the base game (with easy separability), and you have easy text searchability and a number of useful filters (e.g. "usable without UMD" "all unlearned scrolls", etc.) from the mod.

Inventory is always a balance between functionality for the guy sitting in the chair, with the retention of some kind of immersive level so that it still feels psychologically like you're moving stuff around in backpacks or whatever.

There should be some form of personal inventory or extended equipment screen, but for crafting items, potions, scrolls, bolts, arrows, books, etc, a single inventory is better. Checking n-different screens just to find out which of your guys is carrying that one specific item is bothersome. A filter/search function is also good and isn't all that different if it searches all inventories at once.
I am mostly thinking of Divinity:OS 1 as negative, when it comes to personal inventories. Especially the original version where the crafting screen didn't select items automatically from inventory. It was fun to interact with it at the beginning when the inventory was rather empty, but it got bothersome once the items started to pile up. An option to switch to a list style inventory would have been great for the later stages. This makes me wonder if there are games that offer different inventory settings or that switch to a different style if the inventory reaches a certain size.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I don't see any advantage in using icons.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Mandate of Heaven's inventory.

Not just because it's tetris-like.
Not just because of the great paper dolls.
Not just because of the beautiful armors and swords.
But also because it's lightning fast to manage, equip/unequip.

For some reason, every game from the last 20 years lags even a little in shops/inventory management while in M&M 6-8, everything goes as fast as you can move your mouse...

 

[jackofshadows]

But also because it's lightning fast to manage, equip/unequip.

At first, yes. The more magical gear you acquire though, rings especially, the more of a chore it becomes and starting to lose to the damn list system.

 

[gurugeorge]

I am mostly thinking of Divinity:OS 1 as negative,

Aaargh, the Divinity inventory system is truly horrible.

I don't see any advantage in using icons.

I think it's psychological. A good icon makes you feel that the item or ability is more "virtually real" and binds you to the game psychologically; also it becomes familiar quite quickly, so your brain automatically knows what that thing or ability is without having to read what it is (the problem with list inventories). IIRC visual recognition is (energetically) cheaper and faster (for the brain) than linguistic (it's an older, more evolved system).

 

[HoboForEternity]

What if it's a list of icons like gothic 1 where you have to scroll a god damn pillar of icons just to find the right potion?

 

[BanEvader]

It's not a CRPG but I really, really like Neo Scavenger. What's there is really promising, but unfortunately it's a half finished game.
So, god-awful tetris grid icon based atrocity I suppose, it soothes my autism.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I don't see any advantage in using icons.

There isn't one, so every pro-argument for it will boil down to "it just feels better" or "just like... look at the colors! Look at them!"
it's indisputable that lists are better

 

[Storyfag]

But also because it's lightning fast to manage, equip/unequip.

At first, yes. The more magical gear you acquire though, rings especially, the more of a chore it becomes and starting to lose to the damn list system.

Identifying items becomes a chore after mass-armageddoning Dragonsand and such. Especially if your Identify Master is not the same as your Merchang Master.

 

[Peachcurl]

Text based is fine if you have a small number of items. For larger numbers, icons (non-tetris, same size for all) is the way to go. If the icons are designed well, that is, easy to distinguish.

 

[frajaq]

obviously Deus Ex/RE 4 tetris inventories are the best

 

[Devastator]

I don't care. The inventory system has to not irritate. That is all.

Yes!

But I can't figure out why Fallout's inventory never irritated me. It was quite chaotic by design but I always liked it. But I remember that it bothered the shit out of many people.

A lot of players didn't really know how to use it fully. You could use an item from your inventory in multiple ways, for example by equipping it, via contextual menu outside the inventory or in the inventory; some players weren't even aware of it. The quirks even extended to your party. If you used the inventory to transfer items like a noob, then you had to pay your companions. I remember that a lot of people just didn't know initially that you were supposed to use steal on your companions, as it could never fail or turn them hostile.

I mean, the system is really quite shit, as you also don't get many items on one screen. There also was no real way to properly organize it (besides the minor stuff like unloading weapons to stack them). But it never bothered me, although it probably really should have. I can't figure out why exactly. Maybe I liked the game so much overall that I decided to look past it.

 

[DemonKing]

IE Series - no tetris games, everything from plate mail to a ring take up the same size, unique icons for unique items and detailed descriptions of objects.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

PoE1

 

[soulburner]

I found the inventory in Infinity Engine games to be very comfortable to use (most likely because there's no hundreds of items to be found, usable for crafting - Pillars was a mess because of that), but if I'd have to choose the best, it would be something like SkyUI mod for Skyrim. Sort-able list with an icon, name, weight, properties, sell value.

 

[gerey]

Grid inventory is quite simply the superior option in terms of visibility and ease of use, even if all the items in it are displayed as being of the same size.

Now, if you combined it with weight limitations, and the squares in the grid represent volume, so that the player can't stuff the inventory full of relatively light items that are of large size, you get the perfect inventory system.

Nothing activates the neurons quite as thoroughly as organizing your inventory in RE4, or deciding what to bring and what to leave behind in your excursions in classic RE or STALKER games.

 

[wishbonetail]

I would have sex with Arcanum's UI. List-based inventories look like financial statements.